Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke has resigned

Controversial Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has resigned, the Milwaukee County Clerk told CBS affiliate WDJT.

The resignation will go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Milwaukee County Clerk George L. Christenson told CBS News.

Christenson said Thursday that he received a resignation letter from Clarke. Christenson says the letter didn’t give the reason for Clarke’s resignation.

In a statement, Clarke said he was leaving “to pursue other opportunities.” He said he will have “news about my next steps in the very near future.”

Clarke rose to national prominence in recent years with provocative social media posts, appearances on conservative media programs and his staunch support of President Trump. Clarke announced in May that he’d taken a job at the Department of Homeland Security, but the agency never confirmed it. He later said he withdrew his name.

Sources confirmed to CBS News that Clarke is not joining the Department of Homeland Security.

Some Wisconsin conservatives had encouraged Clarke to challenge U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, but he repeatedly rejected their overtures.

Clarke recently published a memoir, “Cop Under Fire.” On Sunday, Mr. Trump tweeted support for Clark and his book, calling it “a great book by a great guy.”

Kroger has named a Cincinnati executive as its first-ever African-American division head. Monica Garnes, currently corporate vice president of produce-floral merchandising, will move to Phoenix to become president of the grocer’s Fry’s division. The promotion marks a return to the southwest for Garnes, who served as vice president of merchandising at Fry’s from 2013 to 2015.

Garnes was twice named one of the Top Women in Grocery by Progressive Grocer magazine and has been recognized as one of the “Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink” by Fortune and Food & Wine magazines.

While CES becomes a bigger spotlight for television each year, the industry’s premier January event continues to be the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, which begins today at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena, Calif.

More than 200 television journalists and critics are gathering for the TCA’s semiannual event (there’s also summer press tour each July/August), featuring 14 days of panels, set visits and receptions that will spotlight new and returning shows from dozens of broadcast, cable and streaming outlets. (As usual, Adweek will be filing stories extensively throughout.)

Many networks used the summer press tour to set their agendas for the coming season—most notably, the five broadcast chiefs pushed back against the narrative of declining linear ratings by insisting that their shows are stronger than ever, thanks to their dominance on digital platforms. Now, the winter press tour will highlight the TV industry’s biggest issues for 2018, all of which are likely to permanently alter the medium’s landscape in the coming months.

These are the seven biggest questions about the future of TV that the winter press tour will tackle over the next two weeks:

What is the future of the 21st Century Fox TV properties that will—and won’t—be bought by Disney?

Last month, Disney announced that it will acquire 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion, after spinning off some Fox assets into a company that will tentatively be called New Fox. While Disney doesn’t expect the deal to close for another 12 to 18 months, there are major questions about what will happen to the Fox TV properties heading to Disney—including FX, Fox’s TV studio, National Geographic and Fox’s 30 percent stake in Hulu (all of which will join Disney assets like ABC, Freeform and ESPN)—as well as the properties not included in the deal, like Fox, Fox News and Fox Sports.

Many of the top execs of these Fox assets will have their first chance at press tour to publicly discuss the future of their networks and their own roles, starting today with Fox Television Group chairmen and CEOs Dana Walden and Gary Newman, who jointly oversee both the Fox TV studio (which is Disney-bound) and the Fox network (which isn’t).

How will sexual harassment scandals continue to reshape TV?

The onslaught of sexual harassment allegations over the past several months has affected almost every network appearing at press tour, which has led to an exodus of some of TV’s biggest names in front of and behind the camera. (Among them: Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose and Kevin Spacey.) TV execs and creators alike will be grilled at press tour about the fallout from the past few months and what they’re planning to do to stamp out sexual harassment.

Can ABC successfully revive American Idol?

Of all the new shows this season, the biggest—and riskiest—addition by far was ABC’s decision to revive American Idol. The controversial move dominated the May broadcast upfront week, with rivals taking plenty of shots at ABC, while the network insisted its big swing will pay off. We’ll see if critics have warmed up to the show during ABC’s TCA day on Monday, when reporters will talk with the execs and talent involved with the new version of Idol, and start to determine whether ABC’s decision to bring the show back in March was brilliant—or boneheaded.

Will Hulu continue its momentum when The Handmaid’s Tale returns?

A year ago, Hulu dazzled winter press tour critics with the first episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, which went on to be named the TCA Program of the Year, and then won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama. Now it’s time for Hulu to prove that Handmaid’s Tale has plenty left in the tank for Season 2—which will be paneling at press tour—and reveal whether its high-profile new dramas like The Looming Tower (which follows the counter-terrorism divisions of the FBI and CIA in the late ’90s as they follow Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda) and cop drama Hard Sun are worthy successors to the Elisabeth Moss drama. With both Netflix and Amazon skipping press tour yet again, this is Hulu’s chance to dominate the streaming spotlight.

Will the Paramount Network give USA and TNT a run for their money?

It’s been almost a year since Viacom CEO Robert Bakish revealed his plan to rebrand Spike as Paramount Network, creating a general entertainment network that the company hopes can compete alongside USA and TNT for audiences and ad dollars. As Paramount Network launches on Jan. 18, Viacom is giving the network its TCA coming out party, where execs and talent will either soar or stumble out of the gate with shows like Waco (a limited about the deadly 1993 standoff between the FBI, ATF and David Koresh’s Branch-Davidians) and drama Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner.

With the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, how big will NBC’s demo lead be this season?

NBC already has a healthy lead among its rivals this season in the 18-49 demo, which will only increase with February’s unbeatable one-two punch of Super Bowl LII and the Winter Olympics. The network will take the demo crown no matter what, but if it can engineer ratings gains for both events—and it will be sharing its plans for programming enhancements over the next two weeks—it could end up with the biggest demo lead over its rivals in several years.

Can anyone compete with Netflix?

Netflix will be skipping press tour yet again, but the streaming service—which will spend as much as $8 billion on original content this year—will be on the minds of every network that travels to Pasadena. How can anyone compete against those seemingly limitless (and advertising-free) resources? The industry needs to come up with answers—fast—and we’ll hear some of those solutions at winter press tour.

ED LOVER’S SYNDICATED MORNING SHOW TO END AFTER TWO YEAR RUN

Ed Lover speaks onstage at HISTORY’s “Roots” Atlanta advanced screening at National Center for Civil and Human Rights on May 9, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia.

*The Reach Media-syndicated Ed LoverMorning Show will be discontinued at the end of the year, according to InsideRadio.

Launched two years ago and placed on several of Radio One’s classic hip-hop stations, the program was down to two FM and one AM affiliates, along with a number of HD Radio-fed translator outlets.

Lover, who came to fame as host of “Yo! MTV Raps,” will continue his weekend program available through the syndicator.

Mitch Henry, manager of network operations for Reach Media, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Lover is broadcasting his last live show today, with reruns planned for Christmas week.

Via InsideRadio:

The morning show was placed on a number of stations that were part of the explosion of classic hip-hop stations that sprouted up a few years ago, many of which have since adjusted to a more throwback R&B focus.

The paper is also speculating that Lover’s Atlanta affiliate “Boom 102.9,” which airs on the Decatur, GA-licensed translator W275BK at 102.9, may adjust from classic hip-hop to an “old-school R&B format” and place Tom Joyner in mornings. Joyner, who announced his retirement effective at the end of 2019, was recently dropped from Cox Media crosstown urban AC “Kiss 104-1” WALR.

Also opening up a hole for the throwback R&B format in the market was the recent move of The Steve Hegwood-owned “Old School 87.7” to “Mix 87.7,” which is now playing contemporary R&B from the ‘80s, ‘90s and 2000s.Nicole Hyatt -eurweb.com